"You sit in a circle at the Shed, the cultural center in Manhattan's futuristic Hudson Yards, waiting for the show to begin. Through your enhanced glasses, you see four empty chairs facing you, just out of reach. You watch strangers look out for the actors to arrive. As they do, one at a time, you feel unsettled each locks eyes with you, specifically."
"Don't panic, the esteemed British actor Ian McKellen assures you, as the actors take their seats. Except the actors are not there, really McKellen, along with co-stars Golda Rosheuvel, Arinze Kene and Rosie Sheehy, appears in An Ark, a new play at the Shed, in video form, a nearly opaque specter overlaid on the candy-apple red carpeting and crisp white walls of the theater and the outlines of your 180 or so fellow audience members."
"And don't confuse it with VR (virtual reality), the oft-maligned virtual headset technology of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse or Apple store demos. The distinction between mixed reality and VR is very important to me, said Todd Eckert, the show's producer, in an interview at the Shed a few weeks before previews. The former combines elements of the physical and digital; the latter is full-on immersion into the digital elective isolation, as Eckert puts it,"
An Ark stages a 47-minute, second-person mixed-reality play at the Shed in Hudson Yards. Audience members sit in a circle wearing enhanced glasses while video-rendered actors appear as nearly opaque specters overlaying the theater and fellow viewers. Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel, Arinze Kene and Rosie Sheehy appear in video form and address each viewer directly with repeated instructions like 'Don't panic.' The production distinguishes mixed reality from VR by combining physical and digital elements without full immersion. Previews experienced technical malfunctions that provoked some panicking. The experience intentionally avoids screen-based isolation to maintain connection to the physical space.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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